Hey you guys, we had a Fiber Guild meeting this past Monday and wow, we have some amazing people here. Z, the lady who has been in charge of the guild for years, was given some some bags of stuff that she brought for us. I got a bunch of stuff! Let's see some of it:2 pair of hand cards. This first pair is really nice, but a bit small for my liking. Also, I think it's for a coarser wool than I usually card.The second pair is a bit bigger, but curved and while the pads are stapled on them pretty good they seem a little loose like the glue that underneath let go or something. They still work fine. I was going to ask for some tricks on how to clean out the old wool but I got most of it. MOSTLY. If there are any tricks to be shared, though, please do.Then there was a bunch of very beginner yarn in there. VERY beginner. At one point I found a spot where I guess they didn't know how to join so they just tied the roving together. EEK!That black/white/brown stuff in the second picture is less than what it was when I got it because I un-spun 2 "hanks" worth, re-spun it thinner, though still thick and thin out of necessity, and plied them together. Got 2 over-full bobbins from it. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I will post pictures next Friday in the FF thread. Oh, I also got a swift! Yay! Umbrella swift! And some more balls of roving. Nice, I just sent some out in a de-stash attempt and them got more than I sent that same day that I went to the PO. Bah.

So here's the question: what to do with it all? Not all of the yarn is that bad but most of it is. And I really don't want to keep doing the un-spin, re-spin thing on it. While the product was nicer than I thought it would be, it gets repetitive. Should I just finish out the brown/white/black? And what about those hand cards? Maybe I should give some to the weaver-lady who is learning to spin and is hopefully going to be taking over the guild before too long...Thoughts? Thanks you guys!

I have a pair of the Ashford hand cards (second pic) and they are great! I couldn't see you need 2 pairs of carders, so I'm sure someone would appreciate you re-gifting them. As for the spun yarn, you could always dye it (kool-aid is readily available and you can get some great colors) and then ply it with a thread to make it stronger and more to your liking. As for using it in projects, after plying it, it would make it stronger and then you could use it for knitting/croceting/weaving/etc.Hopefully that gives you some ideas

Really, plying with something else will make very beautiful yarns to work with.

For cleaning out the carders, using just the 'toe' of the top carder, bring it across the bottom carder from 'heel' to 'toe'. Repeat. The old wool will come up on the 'toe' of the top carder and you can take off.